As a young journalist, I was always enchanted by a story told in wine media circles. It’s the ultimate underdog yarn, about the surprise moment when once-scrappy California triumphed over French winemakers for the very first time, forever changing the way the world viewed not just the state, but America.
In May 1976, a British wine merchant named Steven Spurrier and his associate Patricia Gallagher set off for Paris with 12 California wines — six chardonnays and six cabernets — in their luggage.
To mark America’s bicentennial, they had arranged a blind tasting of California’s best wines against the formidable wines of France. Anyone at the time would’ve told you this was silly. Fine wine, according to popular opinion, was made in France. Nowhere else.
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But the joke was on the nine elite French judges. During the clandestine tasting, in which they had only scorecards and the wine in their glasses, the jury made comments they would regret. “This is definitely California. It has no nose,” one judge quipped while drinking a Batard Montrachet. “Ah, back to France!” proclaimed another, sipping a Napa Valley chardonnay.
A panel of French wine judges at the 1976 Paris tasting pitting California wines against French wines, conducted at the L’Academie du Vin in Paris on May 24, 1976.
Courtesy of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars
When the scores were tallied, Time magazine’s George Taber, the only journalist present and thus the official record keeper, shared the results: Unbeknownst to the panel, they had placed California wines at the top of both the red (1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars) and white (1973 Chateau Montelena) flights — albeit by a hair.
The French jury favored the red by 1.5 points. With Spurrier’s and Gallagher’s scores figured in, it won by a half point. Still, it was unprecedented. The ripple effects of the Judgment of Paris, as it became known, and the challenge to French prestige would eventually transform global winemaking. Today, rather than fussing over Old World wines from big European houses, bars and restaurants across the globe are as likely to pour an unfussy bottle of Georgian saperavi as they are something from the Central Coast’s Santa Rita Hills.
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At the time, however, it didn’t have much impact. Taber’s was the only coverage, appearing as four paragraphs tucked away on page 58 of Time’s June 7, 1976, issue. In it, he quoted Montelena’s general manager and part-owner, Jim Barrett, summing up the historic win: “Not bad for kids from the sticks,” Barrett said. The 1973 bottle fetched $6.
Golden anniversary, harsh reality
Fifty years later, on a recent Sunday, I wandered the lavish halls of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, swirling a glass of the silky 2023 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon, which retails today for $250. The day’s tasting marked the battle’s 50th anniversary, with all eight of the Napa Valley wineries pouring their wines alongside bites from several Thomas Keller restaurants.
Scenes from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars during the 50th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris in Napa on Oct. 11, 2026.
Jessica Yadegaran/SFGATE
Scenes from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars during the 50th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris in Napa on Oct. 11, 2026.
Jessica Yadegaran/SFGATE
The event was one of at least a dozen Judgment commemorations so far this year. The original showdown happened on May 24, so that week was particularly busy, with reenactments and tribute dinners from San Francisco to New York as well as exhibitions at UC Davis and the Smithsonian.
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The crowd at Stag’s Leap very much matched the wines — older and moneyed. I spotted logos for Chanel and Yves St. Laurent, and more exotic animal-skinned cowboy boots than I ever knew existed. I don’t think I saw a patron under 35. At the table for Heitz Cellar, which had on offer a $660 cab from 2016, I met two charming couples from Texas.
The women told me they make an annual trip to Napa Valley “to support Spring Mountain,” their favorite viticultural area. They gushed over the Judgment, and I found myself gushing right along with them. “It’s just such an American story,” one told me, likening it to the Alamo.
It certainly is. But, as I nibbled on truffled gnudi from Bouchon and washed it down with a silky $225 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Bosche, I couldn’t help but wonder whether this all still mattered.
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Lobster roll and burger from Thomas Keller’s Burgers & Half Bottles at the 50th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris in Napa on Oct. 11, 2026.
Jessica Yadegaran/SFGATE
California doesn’t have anything to prove anymore. If anything, given the current harsh economic realities, shouldn’t the industry be focused on affordable wines that appeal to a younger demographic, instead of luxe triple-digit products collected by a very small group of people? California wineries are filing for bankruptcy, laying off workers or closing entirely; vines are being ripped out, and high-end juice is filling private-label grocery store bottles in unprecedented volumes.
Eager to discuss the issue, I reached out to friend, and famed wine writer and judge, Alder Yarrow after the tasting. Yarrow runs the long-running Vinography blog and answered my question without pause. “I think it’s long past time to drop this Judgment of fill-in-the-blank,” he said. “The event didn’t matter at the time that it happened. America made it matter in the decades that followed. It might be the single greatest marketing campaign in the history of wine. It was very effective. And it has fueled an incredible journey for California.”
I saw his point. I vividly recall being part of that journey 20 years ago. I was barely 30 and invited to be a judge at the 30th anniversary organized by Spurrier himself. Naturally, I freaked out. I remember thinking it was so important.
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The team from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc prepare bites for the 50th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris.
Jessica Yadegaran/SFGATE
But 2006 was a different time for California’s wine industry, which generates $84 billion a year in total economic activity. Now, after years of constant investment, a serious reduction in consumption is painfully resizing the industry, and those who are left will need “to figure out how to make better quality wine for less money and make it enjoyable for younger people who don’t want to feel like they have to be educated to drink it,” Yarrow said.
The silver lining
There is one part of the story that I feel everyone, including younger people, needs to know: That this 1.5-point win opened the doors to winemaking in the New World, from Chile to New Zealand. The Judgment of Paris deeply inspired third-generation Argentine vintner Nicolas Catena of Catena Zapata, which in 2023 held the most 100-point ratings in all of South America.
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“It was inspirational to so many people,” Stag’s Leap estate director Juan Muñoz-Oca told me. “Dr. Catena told me, personally: ‘When I read that this kid from the sticks in Northern California had won, it gave me the ability to say, ‘Why are we not making malbecs that can compete with the best wines around the world?’’”
The barrel room at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in Napa on Oct. 11, 2026.
Jessica Yadegaran/SFGATE
I met Muñoz-Oca toward the end of the Sunday tasting, under the shade of a tree, while nursing the remains of Clos du Val’s elegant 2023 Yetalil ($200, a bargain!). He’s a fascinating vintner and straight shooter who hails from Argentina and has made wine all over the world, from France and Australia to the Pacific Northwest. He sees Napa Valley through that global lens, and brought up the price issue before I did.
“I have told people for many years that wines don’t have to be really expensive in order for them to be enjoyable, and I always felt like Napa was kind of the opposite of my narrative,” he said. “I always felt like Napa was an expensive proposition. But once you live here, you understand the value and the care that goes into making these wines, and then the entire price point just starts making sense.”
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A view of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars during the 50th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris in Napa on Oct. 11, 2026.
Jessica Yadegaran/SFGATE
Still, he said there is work to do, especially now. It’s already starting within the Marchesi Antinori organization, which owns Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. At their Atlas Peak property, they recently dropped a cabernet’s price from $165 to $120, a nearly 30% cut. The new price tag is still far beyond easy reach of most casual drinkers, but it’s a start.
“We’re just going to invest in the things that will make a difference and find our way on the side of this restructuring, with better prices for consumers and wines that continue to tell a cool story, because ultimately that’s the most important thing,” he said.
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The Judgment of Paris transformed California winemaking — and California food at large — forever. Maybe now, half a century later, letting go of it will do the same.
Dining and Cooking